David Trubek, Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in the Third World: Human Rights Law and

Human Needs Programs, University of Wisconsin Law (1984)

 International human rights law recognizes a distinction between political and civil rights, on
the one hand, and economic, social and cultural rights, on the other.
 In the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 16 and Articles 22 through
27 encompass economic, social, and cultural rights.
 Specialized Agencies: ILP,WHO and UNESCO
 What is the Right to Work:
o Everyone has the right to work. The right to work is a foundation for the realization
of other human rights and for life with dignity. It includes the opportunity to earn a
livelihood by work freely chosen or accepted. In progressively realising this right,
States are obliged to ensure the availability of technical and vocational guidance, and
take appropriate measures to develop an enabling environment for productive
employment opportunities. States must ensure non-discrimination in relation to all
aspects of work. Forced labour is prohibited under international law.
o Closely connected with the right to work are the right to just and favourable
conditions of work, and trade union-related rights. States are obliged to ensure fair
wages, equal pay for equal work, and equal remuneration for work of equal value.
Workers should be guaranteed a minimum wage that allows for a decent living for
themselves and their families. Working conditions must be safe, healthy, and not
demeaning to human dignity. Employees must be provided with reasonable work
hours, adequate rest and leisure time, as well as periodic, paid holidays.
o Workers have the right to associate with one another and bargain collectively for
improved working conditions and living standards. They have the right to form and
join a trade union of their choice, and trade unions have the right to form national or
international groupings. Workers have the right to strike, as long as it is in
conformity with national laws. Collective worker rights cannot be subject to
restrictions by States other than those prescribed by law and necessary in a
democratic society in accordance with national security interests, public order, or for
the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.
 The ILO and the Economic Covenant
o The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose
mandate is to advance social and economic justice through setting international
labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first
and oldest specialised agency of the UN. 
o The ILO's international labour standards are broadly aimed at ensuring accessible,
productive, and sustainable work worldwide in conditions of freedom, equity,
security and dignity. 
 The BASIC NEEDS APPROACH is one of the major approaches to the measurement of
absolute poverty in developing countries. It attempts to define the absolute minimum
resources necessary for long-term physical well-being, usually in terms of consumption
goods.
o A basic needs (BN) approach to development is one which gives priority to meeting
the basic needs of all the people. The actual content of BN have been variously
defined: they always include the fulfilment of certain standards of nutrition, (food
 and water), and the universal provision of health and education services. They
sometimes also cover other material needs, such as shelter and clothing, and non-
material needs such as employment, participation and political liberty.1 The idea of
making the meeting of certain fundamental human needs a development priority is
not a recent idea nor a sophisticated one; it stems from the simple view that
development should be concerned with removing absolute deprivation, as a first
priority. This idea finds rhetorical echoes in the speeches of almost every statesman
in developing countries, and every preamble to a development plan. But when it
comes to translating the idea into action — into plans, policies and projects — the
achievement of BN becomes more complex, both in terms of identifying the
appropriate measures, and in terms of mobilising the required political will.

 The WHO and the Economic Covenant

o “Everyone has the right to life, to work... to just and favourable conditions of work...
Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being
of himself and of his family...” (From the Universal Declaration on Human Rights,
UN, 1948).
o The fundamental concept of the WHO approach is as follows:
 Primary Health Care is essential health care made universally accessible to
individuals and families by means acceptable to them, through their full
participation and at a cost that the community and country can afford. It
forms an integral part both of the country’s health system of which it is the
nucleus of the overall social and economic development of the community

 Social Welfare, Basic Needs, and the New International Economic Order
o The New International Economic Order (NIEO) is a set of proposals advocated by
developing countries to end economic colonialism and dependency through a new
interdependent economy. The main NIEO document recognized that the current
international economic order "was established at a time when most of the developing
countries did not even exist as independent states and which perpetuates inequality."
In the spirit of "trade not aid," the NIEO called for changes in trade, industrialization,
agricultural production, finance, and transfer of technology. The United Nations
General Assembly adopted the Declaration for the Establishment of a New
International Economic Order and its accompanying program of action on 1 May
1974.
o The most important NIEO princples are: (a) effective domestic control over natural
resources; (b) regulagion of the activities of multi-national corporations; (c) just and
equitable prices for primary commodity and other exports of developing countries;
(d) money and development finance reforms; (e) market access of products of
developing countries; and (f) strengthening the science and technological capacity of
developing countries.

 The Relationship between Basic Needs Approach and NIEO: Complementary or

Conflicting Strategies?
o The basic needs approach in some sense runs counter to the NIEO. Earlier, it was
argued that no purpose is served by merging or confusing the two distinct concepts of
basic needs and the NIEO. The former specifies what the objectives of development
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 should be and elaborates policies and measures to attain them. The latter specifies the
changes required in international economic institutions and policies and in relations
between stales to redress past injustices and to create a more equitable framework for
the future.
o The fact, however, that the two concepts are distinct does not imply that they are
unrelated. The most obvious link between the two is that the implementation of the
provisions of the NIEO, through redistribution of wealth and income from rich to
poor nations and through a more equitable pattern of international economic growth,
would immediately and over time increase the resources available to poor countries
to launch basic needs strategies and meet basic needs targets more effectively.
o But in the absence of internal reforms, the implementation of the NIEO will not in
itself suffice to meet the basic needs of the masses in the poor countries. The two
concepts are also related through the international implications of the implementation
of basic needs strategies by developing countries.
o A basic needs approach with its emphasis on self reliance; on changes in patterns of
demand, consumption and production; on utilization of local material and human
resources to produce goods and services to meet essential needs; on labour-intensive
technologies and small-scale production, has implications for a wide range of
international economic issues such as the structure and terms of trade, the transfer of
technology, international migration, multi national enterprises and development
assistance.
o A focus on meeting basic needs should imply a lessening of the dependence of the
Third World on the markets, capital and technologies of the developed world; a
greater potential for trade expansion among developing countries; an improvenient in
their ternis of trade vis-a-vis the industrialised world; reduced dependence on
multinationals and sophisticated technologies; a reorientation of development
assistance. All this should reduce the dependence of the developing countries on
growth in the industrialised world and open up the possibility of autonomous, self-
sustained growth for the Third World which is currently ruled out by their dependent
status. The systematic pursuit of a basic needs strategy by developing countries
would thus appear to be a potent means of accelerating the realisation of deniands for
a restructuring of the world economy, though not necessarily always in the direction
called for under the New International Economic Order.